Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

[abal1000x]

Yes it does,47 ohm, i just install it yesterday. Can you repost the schema for your version that dont need open cpu cover. Previous pic is quite hard to follow
About the led, i think that using pin in the rail is easier than the main board. Another idea like add another pin for the joycon led is also practical. Of course some modification in fw is needed to output led signal to another pin. The idea about speaker also interestingView attachment 381306

v1
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Lite
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v2 (From @raksmey1231)
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oled (From @raksmey1231)
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oled (from @deeps)
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[Byomi]

This is so cool. Thanks everybody for confirmation. Would love to see someone post a YT video of the whole modding process with rp2040 tiny and mosfet on back of pcb.

Bought a Zelda Edition and planning to do that with the rp2040 tiny.

 

[Switxh]

This is so cool. Thanks everybody for confirmation. Would love to see someone post a YT video of the whole modding process with rp2040 tiny and mosfet on back of pcb.

Bought a Zelda Edition and planning to do that with the rp2040 tiny.

Why do you need a video when people have spent the time to make all these nice diagrams and PDF guides?

 

[Byomi]

Well, not seen a video working on backside of pcb and never done a switch mod before. So it could help understanding what’s needed to do. Can you point me to the pdf guide you mentioned that contains the instruction for rp2040 tiny and mosfet on back?

 

[Switxh]

Well, not seen a video working on backside of pcb and never done a switch mod before. So it could help understanding what’s needed to do. Can you point me to the pdf guide you mentioned that contains the instruction for rp2040 tiny and mosfet on back?

PDF guide is here. It features the Tiny and multiple other RP2040 boards. @abal1000x just posted diagrams of mosfet installs for every model. They're even labelled and annotated. Not sure how much more in depth it can be.

 

[Uberfish]

Towel thrown in. Replaced the display connector on my OLED. Turns out the power IC had blown for whatever unknown reason. Took it to a repair shop that could replace it for $30 (I'm in one of them cheap countries), picofly still doesn't work. Replaced picofly with an hwfly, boots to hekate perfectly. hwfly 1, picofly 0.

 

[Dee87]

Towel thrown in. Replaced the display connector on my OLED. Turns out the power IC had blown for whatever unknown reason. Took it to a repair shop that could replace it for $30 (I'm in one of them cheap countries), picofly still doesn't work. Replaced picofly with an hwfly, boots to hekate perfectly. hwfly 1, picofly 0.

if u blown the power ic then u also might have blown the picofly
so befor u say hwfly1 , picofly 0 then u might check that

 

[lightninjay]

Try the back pcb mosfet, you will fallin in love with how easy it is. One mosfet is enough.

I'd really rather not. Since I do installs on everything except OLED, I never even remove the PCB from the case in most instances. I open the back cover, remove the heat/EMF shield, remove the heat pipe, remove the APU cover, then get to business.

 

[Uberfish]

if u blown the power ic then u also might have blown the picofly
so befor u say hwfly1 , picofly 0 then u might check that

Ahh, take my comment with a pinch of salt (my salt at my own failure). Many people here have had very positive experiences with the picofly and I really do think it's a good solution. However, it seems that it's beyond my skill level, and my story is a warning to not take the installation of this chip into an OLED lightly. I fully admit that if the power IC got burned, it was my fault. What I'm wondering is what caused the power IC to fail. Was it because I initially installed only 1 resistor on the pico (47ohms) or because of a soldering failure on my part. Regardless, the hwfly was a little easier to install, and that went smoothly.

 

[Dee87]

Ahh, take my comment with a pinch of salt (my salt at my own failure). Many people here have had very positive experiences with the picofly and I really do think it's a good solution. However, it seems that it's beyond my skill level, and my story is a warning to not take the installation of this chip into an OLED lightly. I fully admit that if the power IC got burned, it was my fault. What I'm wondering is what caused the power IC to fail. Was it because I initially installed only 1 resistor on the pico (47ohms) or because of a soldering failure on my part. Regardless, the hwfly was a little easier to install, and that went smoothly.

Like i Always say if a install doesnt go as wanted its most of the time the installers fault cause the firmware and hardware is tested more then enough and has been proven to be Working.

its not likely that the ic was blown cause of a missing 47ohm resistor.

since u had to replace the oled display connector eather u had a short there that has blown the ic out or there was a installation issue something shortet mostlikley the 3v to ground but that is hard to tell, to know that i would have to look at the complete install itself.

did the pico show any signs of life? when u tried rebooting it?

 

[LogicalMadness]

I'd really rather not. Since I do installs on everything except OLED, I never even remove the PCB from the case in most instances. I open the back cover, remove the heat/EMF shield, remove the heat pipe, remove the APU cover, then get to business.

Personally, I'm way more comfortable removing the motherboard and setting aside all the parts to be safer while I work (had a Switch where I accidentally touched the case w\ the iron).

I definitely prefer removing the motherboard over removing the APU shield (see your previous post about replacing BT\WiFi resistors).

Way easier to solder to this cap vs the APU cap(s) and, speaking of easier caps, this gives me an excuse to get 3v from the back side of V1s\V2s (P13 cap) again.

As always, to each their own, but you do experimentation already, is this really that out of bounds to try?

 

[lightninjay]

Personally, I'm way more comfortable removing the motherboard and setting aside all the parts to be safer while I work (had a Switch where I accidentally touched the case w\ the iron).

I definitely prefer removing the motherboard over removing the APU shield (see your previous post about replacing BT\WiFi resistors).

Way easier to solder to this cap vs the APU cap(s) and, speaking of easier caps, this gives me an excuse to get 3v from the back side of V1s\V2s (P13 cap) again.

As always, to each their own, but you do experimentation already, is this really that out of bounds to try?

Not out of bounds to try, just something I'm not interested in. I don't do installs professionally, so I take my time anyway, and doing the APU install gives me more satisfaction and install pr0n to look at. As you say, to each their own. And yes, I did swipe the BT and WiFi capacitors, but that had nothing to do with removing the APU shield. That was an issue where I actually blew them off the board while trying to use hotair in a nearby area.

 

[LogicalMadness]

v1
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Lite
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v2
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oled
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Are all the caps the same between the different versions? In case I need to replace one

 

[Dee87]

is this really that out of bounds to try?

That out of ur MOUTH ...... WOW

 

[lightninjay]

Also, that doesn't mean that I will not add @abal1000x's discovery to the guide, quite the contrary. I plan to add his MOSFET placement and the home button LED mod to the guide in the next revision. I just like to wait several days to see if any issues are going to arise. Let people try the mods and sus out any potential issues (like the joycon reset issues on the home button joycon mod) before posting it to the guide, so I can cover all potential bases of issue an installer might have.

 

[abal1000x]

Are all the caps the same between the different versions? In case I need to replace one

Looks like its similar, but not yet measured it.

Post automatically merged: Jul 2, 2023

I've tried install 4 mosfet, cpu 2 back 2, to see if theres correlation between number of mosfet to glitching time in mariko and the conclusion are

There is no correlation between number of mosfet to glitching time.

View attachment 381325

Theres also 3mosfet but i forgot to write it down.
More less, the same like that.

 

[Uberfish]

Like i Always say if a install doesnt go as wanted its most of the time the installers fault cause the firmware and hardware is tested more then enough and has been proven to be Working.

its not likely that the ic was blown cause of a missing 47ohm resistor.

since u had to replace the oled display connector eather u had a short there that has blown the ic out or there was a installation issue something shortet mostlikley the 3v to ground but that is hard to tell, to know that i would have to look at the complete install itself.

did the pico show any signs of life? when u tried rebooting it?

The pico was operating as expected. 3.3v power was still good. The last I saw it doing was injecting with the white LED and then nothing would happen because the APU wasn't able to boot (I'd get a 'unable to glitch' error code, I think *** or ---. A short across the OLED connector sounds viable, two of the pins were crossed across another bunch of the pins. Not sure if this can damage the power IC but maybe someone does know.

 

[frozenboy]

v1
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Lite
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v2
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oled
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good to know this, could be useful someday, but for now I afraid of bridging pin more than open apu shield, in the pic of oled, the cap is quite close to other component. Pretty sure this kind of installation never appear elsewhere. So if you want to make a video about that. It is ok, but be aware of the risk it could bring.

Towel thrown in. Replaced the display connector on my OLED. Turns out the power IC had blown for whatever unknown reason. Took it to a repair shop that could replace it for $30 (I'm in one of them cheap countries), picofly still doesn't work. Replaced picofly with an hwfly, boots to hekate perfectly. hwfly 1, picofly 0.

I've done more than 40 picofly mod, and all of them work great, fast boot, easy to debug, and durability. So it all your choice, but I'm done with the price of hwfly. Not to mention hwfly sometime need to reset or some version that unable to upgrade fw, and it is annoying for sure. I have to replace it with picofly, a chip that so cheap and stable and I could understand

 

[LuigiGad]

I've done more than 40 picofly mod, and all of them work great, fast boot, easy to debug, and durability.

I confirm the same thing, I have done many, all with PicoWly. Never a problem. Only once for my mistake I mistook the point 3V3 from the motherboard causing damage fortunately only to the picofly and not to the oled... replaced on the fly, everything perfect.

 

[Dee87]

v1
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Lite
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v2
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oled
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Well I did try it on my personal Oled did get it running with one MOSFET for the first time on a Oled
But with very slow glitching.
I'm gonna do some more testing later